The Babes and the Wolf

Prepping

So… I took the day off work and spent four hours prepping for NaNoWriMo yesterday. Yes, you read that right, FOUR SOLID HOURS (FUCK. YEAH. THE GOOD LIFE). If you knew me, you’d know that this is incredibly out of character. Generally, I’m what you’d call a pantser. Some speech act, phrase, or image of a scene pops into my head and I roll with it, feeling it out and following it the thought where it takes me. Occasionally, some ideal or question on the nature of (whatever) about which I’ve been thinking reveals itself as a central idea in the story and together, the two become the thread that directs my story to its inevitable conclusion or lack thereof (I find that the ambiguous ones are always the funnest, mainly because I like mind-fucking people, but that’s another story). I’ve always written like this as far as I can tell and the thought of planning out my story has always felt like the most anathema buzzkill I could imagine.

Until, perhaps, now.

The 1st problem with pure-pants is that my ability to continue writing a story depends largely on my ability to sustain the feel of the scene in my own head. My stories tend to be very character / relationship / mood driven, so anytime something disrupts those threads, its very hard for me to come back to it. Now, if any of you are a parent, you know that from the beginning to the end of writing a single scene, at least 5 non-negotiable tasks will creep up. “Mommy, I potty”… “Mommy, wajer/wa’er peas”… Mommy, I eat…Luvey, (insert something entirely trivial that my fiancé suddenly feels a burning need to talk about)… Mommy, I hurt!!!” (And just for cuteness’ sake, my sons pronounce water as “Wajer” and “Wa’er”, respectively.) Something requires my attention, which extracts me from the scene, and I have a tough time finding my thread again or I fall asleep and never return, leaving the scene fallow.

Pure-pants problem #2 (actually the main one), for me, is that historically my work isn’t particularly plot driven. I actually have a really hard time laying out plots, and the bigger the story, the harder it is for me to map out a plot for how I want to get from A to M to character #4’s Z. While it isn’t so much a problem with short stories, all of my novel ideas are HUGE (sometimes intergalactic) with multiple main characters and plot threads. Add to that creating separate worlds, cities, cultures, histories, institutions, governing bodies, and conspiracies… I think you get my point. What usually happens is that I start writing one part of the story on planet A, hit a snag. Run over to planet G, hit a snag… on and on until all I have is a jumble of fragments that seem daunting to integrate with one another. Then my douchebag alter ego chimes in telling me my word choices are shit, my characters suck, my plot is lame, and no one will ever want to read this. Finally, after I’ve read my fragments for the 36th time and critiqued myself into the ground, THE DREADED BLOCK sets in and there goes my story until I get to thinking about it a few months / years later and the whole process starts over again.

So, feeling the pre- NaNoWriMo anxiety upon me (and also: Seriously, douchebag alter ego? I haven’t even started writing yet and you’re already offering you’re un-solicited opinion!?!?) I’ve decided to try a little prep basically aimed at helping me sort out my plot, combating the pernicious influence of my self-abusive douchebag alter ego, and generally helping me keep my thoughts going, even if I hit a snag or one of The Wubbles need potty help.

I actually started my NaNoWriMo prep pretty late so I'm trying to make up for a lot of lost time - but WOW has it already gotten intense. I don't think I've worked on my writing this diligently since college and it’s amazing. I’ve decided to work on an idea that’s been bouncing around my head for the better part of the last decade, but just in the past few weeks; I’ve developed it exponentially.

I’m using a modified Snowflake Method shared on the October NaNoWriMo Prep assignment page because it seems to allow for a pretty nice view of a multi-thread plot as its being developed, which has already allowed me to identify places where my plot needs a little filling out and other places where my character’s individual plots don’t mesh well and need to be reworked. That way, I can fix the problems sooner rather than later. Right now I’m mostly working on my plot outline but I’ve also written some fragments. I have to admit that this isn’t pure-prep either, as I’ve found that the fragments are helping me define the structure of the plot itself. For instance, one future fragment in particular, has really helped me define the trajectory of one of my plot threads and the relationship between two of the characters. Before the NaNoWriMo purists get all up in arms, it’s a future fragment and that wont be part of this installation of the story, but will likely resurface in one of the sequels. You can find it here ("Lutalica: Fragment #1" ), if interested. Reviews are welcomed and encouraged.

I really hope this doesn’t kill-the-joy for me. I’ll keep you posted on the experience.

With that, I hear a little duckling calling: “Momma! Momma!” So, I’ll have to end this here.


Thanks for reading, stay tuned, and Happy Halloween!!!


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P.S. Did I mention: I actually got up at 6:30 this morning (ON A SATURDAY!!!) to write this? Winning!